It’s never about the ball’s more or less arbitrary movement across the field. It’s about the team. The nation. A man’s masculinity. The greatness of the individual, their physical and mental strength. Isn’t football in essence a socialist sport? And if so: How did the team sport above all other team sports end up in a quagmire of commercialization and corruption?

Simon Critchley is professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York. He has a broad field of interest, evident in his writing on topics such as David Bowie, Hamlet and suicide. His book What We Think About When We Think About Football is now available in Norwegian, translated by Audun Vinger.

Opening the summer at the House of Literature, where the world championship will have a prominent place, Critchley in his lecture will examine the esthetics of football: How do we understand the beauty of the game and the appeal that make millions of people around the world throw their lives into it? And who are the true heroes and villains of football?